2022 Caldecott Award Winner

The 2022 Caldecott Award winner is Watercress, written by Andrea Wang. The illustrator is Jason Chin.

What this book is about:

Directly from the public library at Albuquerque and Bernalillo county: “Gathering watercress by the side of the road in Ohio brings a girl closer to her family's Chinese Heritage. At first, she's embarrassed. Why can't her family get food from the grocery store? But when her mother shares a story of her family's time in China, the girl learns to appreciate the fresh food they foraged.”

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How did the writer come to write “Watercress?”

Andrea Wang: “Over eight years ago, I wrote a personal essay about picking watercress by the side of the road when I was a child. It was a way for me to work through some personal losses. But that memory haunted me and I still didn’t know why. After I started writing for children, I took out the essay and rewrote it as a picture book, but it was far too long and I still struggled to find the heart of the story. More years passed before I realized that I needed to acknowledge the shame and embarrassment I felt about my family and culture when I was young, and to use the main character to show my eventual understanding and acceptance. In reality, I didn’t truly embrace my heritage until I was an adult.”

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Our thoughts on this book

This book brought a vivid reflection that many readers had shared. While we all came from different backgrounds and cultures, we all shared something in common: accepting our way of living. We eventually have to accept the traditions and respective culture that have been embedded in our daily lives while we are growing up. This is particularly important for an immigrant family. Learning how to deal with social differences and grow out of them makes us unique. Watercress is a perfect book to help kids understand cultural differences and accept cultural diversity. We strongly recommend it to the young readers.